Glass Etching with Vinyl Stencils

I took a spontaneous trip to IKEA a couple weeks ago and came away with these awesome jars. Our family is currently saving our change for Disneyland (Yellowstone, if you’ve seen the surprise video) and I thought these would be perfect for the kids to contribute to our fund. I also decided to use them for Easter this year, too.

These jars definitely need some color and personalization. So let’s transform them a little bit!

First, take the lids off and head outside with your favorite Valspar spray paint (found at Lowes). Spray paint the lids and let them dry fully.While the lids are drying let’s do some glass etching. If you haven’t done this before, you will love it. Glass Etching is a great way to personalize or transform jars, glasses, votives, mirrors, plates, etc. Especially if you have a Cricut or Silhouette. Vinyl makes the best stencils HOW TO DO GLASS ETCHING:

1. Remove the backing from the personalized vinyl.

2. Put the vinyl sticker on the jar and rub all the bubbles out.

3. Remove the transfer paper from the top of the vinyl. The best way to do this is to roll it back on itself rather than lifting it straight up.

Side note: You see the bubbles in the vinyl pictured above? Those bubbles don’t matter when you are glass etching. You just don’t want bubbles near the letters where the glass etching cream can seep in.

4. Grab your Armour Etch Cream and a paint brush. This little 3 oz. bottle has lasted me about 6 months. I have done at least 10 projects with it and still had enough to do these 3 jars. Basically, a little goes along way.

5. Cake on the Armour Etch with a paint brush, making sure to cover the entire name. However, be careful to only get the letters and make sure it doesn’t go off the vinyl onto the glass…where you don’t want it!

6. Wait 5 – 7 minutes while the etching cream works its magic.

7. Grab some rubber gloves and paper towels. Make sure to use rubber gloves…you are working with acid here and you DO NOT want it on your skin! It BURNS! I use paper towels to wipe off the etching cream because I can throw them right in the garbage; unlike a rag that I have to make sure gets right into the washer and out of harms way of tiny hands.

8. Run the jar under warm water.

9. Wipe off the Armour Etch with the paper towel. The jar will look as though you hadn’t done anything to it. The etching doesn’t really show up well until it’s dry.

10. If the vinyl hasn’t come off in the water, take it off at this point and wash the outside of the jar. This just makes sure there is no acid sitting on the jar somewhere.

11. Lastly, I wash the outside of the jar with glass cleaner to remove my fingerprints and lint from the paper towel.

Here is the finished product! The lids are perfected painted and the names are etched beautifully. Ready to be filled by the Easter Bunny…and later with coins for Disneyland!